Six Tips To Aid In Go-Fast Boat Safety

Well-known offshore racing and boating writer, Matt Trulio, recently published this article with Boats.com covering some basic tips to really help enhance your go-fast boating experience, while staying safe out on the water. Check out an excerpt of the article below, or read it in full here.

Free time is precious, which means that you need to enjoy every moment of it when you hit the water in your high-performance powerboat. But maximizing fun doesn’t mean compromising safety. Nothing will stop the fun faster than an accident, even a minor one. Awareness and caution are the keys to go-fast boat safety.

To that end we talked to renowned performance-boat driving instructor Tres Martin, who founded the nation’s leading go-fast boat driving school that bears his name, and asked him for practical, everyday tips that can make you and your passengers safer on the water. Here’s what he had to say.

1. Booze and Boat Driving Don’t Mix: “With the way performance boats are today, with all the skills that need to be ready at hand and all that is going on around you when you’re out on the water, there is no margin for error. You need all of your faculties and skills as good as they can possibly be, and any alcohol compromises those skills. You want to be at your very best—at your highest level—when you’re operating a performance boat, or any boat for that matter.”

2. Feel Free to Slow Down: “Just because your boat will run 100 mph doesn’t mean you have to enter a 100-mph class in a poker run. Pick a class where you can cruise along at a comfortable speed so you can keep yourself and your passengers in a safe position.”

3. Drive For Maximum Passenger Comfort: “It always has to be in the back of your mind that as the driver, because you’re hanging onto the steering wheel and throttles, you never feel what your passengers feel. So you might have a misconception about what a great job you’re doing. The best operator is the one whose boat exits the water the least. That means he chose a speed and trim level that will allow the nose of the boat to divide and displace the water and keep from damaging the boat’s drive train and occupants.”